The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.

For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*

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KILL BILL (1)

Image source: Nicolas Zoumboulis/The Swanston Gazette

Despite coronavirus lockdown restrictions, hundreds of people have gathered at rallies across Australia to protest against 5G technology, mandatory vaccination and a host of other grievances.

Last weekend an event was organised in Melbourne by the Facebook page ‘MMAMV Australia‘ (Millions March Against Mandatory Vaccination), and information about the protests was shared within the Facebook group ‘99% unite Main Group “it’s us or them”‘, which has more than 58,000 members and is popular with conspiracy theorists who continue to repeat claims about supposed health risks linked to 5G technology and vaccines which have been debunked elsewhere.

But the Facebook event pages promoting these rallies also urged people to attend if they were concerned over a wide range of issues around COVID-19 Many attendees held signs that called for the arrest or death of Bill Gates, referring to the profusion of debunked claims and conspiracies about the Microsoft founder.

Some went so far as to claim the entire COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax, insisting that the virus was not “as bad as people have said”, with others adding: “We don’t even know anyone who has COVID-19, and if you’ve got doctors and nurses who have got no work to do, how real can it be?”

With efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine continuing, the crowd voiced concerns around the “toxic” make-up of vaccines, claims which have been extensively researched and were recently marked by Full Fact as extremely misleading.

 

HAND SANITIZER

Image source: Facebook

The use of hand sanitiser is the next best thing after washing your hands for 20 seconds, but a viral social media post purporting to show the aftermath of a car fire caused by an exploding bottle of hand sanitiser left out on a hot day may have some people worried.

However, Full Fact found that unless the car had reached temperatures of more than 350 degrees celsius, an external spark would be needed to ignite the sanitiser. Fact-checkers have also been unable to verify whether the fire damage in the photo was truly caused by exploding hand sanitiser.

 

CORONA CHILDREN

Image source: Facebook (1, 2)

Facebook pages have fraudulently used an old photo of a sick baby in a post claiming the child had contracted the coronavirus after open heart surgery, according to fact-checkers at Lead Stories.

“This is baby Kyle. Few weeks ago He survived an opened heart surgery, And today the doctors confirm That he has Corona Virus,” the post states. “He only want you to help him out, by sharing this post to even if it’s 5 different Facebook groups so He can get many prayers as possible.”

This wasn’t the only photo used to stimulate Facebook likes amid the pandemic. Lead Stories also found an altered photo of a little girl, with a breathing tube, holding a sign with an accompanying caption that falsely suggested she had COVID-19. “Nobody wants to pray for me,” the sign says. “Please like my photo and pray.”

But in the original photo, shared on Reddit five months ago, the sign says: “It’s my last day of chemo!”

 

JAPAN WILL PAY FOR YOUR HOLIDAY

Image source: 7News

After Australian websites including 7News recently ran headlines declaring “Japan could pay for part of your post-coronavirus holiday”, fact-checkers at AFP warned that’s not the case. In reality, the subsidised travel plan being considered by Japan would only apply to Japanese residents travelling within the country, not to foreign visitors.

“Please note that the Go to Travel Campaign under consideration by the Japanese government is to stimulate domestic travel demand within Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic and only cover a portion of domestic travel expenses,” the Japan Tourism Agency said in a series of tweets

 

DOLLAR BILL (2)

Image source: Facebook

“What’s bill gates and the Corona virus doing on Australian 10 dollar note?” a  post asks, alongside a photo of the note. “Many will just blow this off. Wake up, it’s been planned for years.”

Of course, the note, which has been in circulation since 2017, doesn’t show Bill Gates or the coronavirus as fact-checkers at AFP have (not surprisingly) discovered. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia the person depicted is Australian writer Mary Gilmore, whereas the circular illustration is a “designer’s interpretation of a Bramble Wattle”, a native Australian bush.

 

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF BILL (3)

Image source: Facebook

It’s not only Australia which can’t get enough of Bill Gates.

Mr. Gates did not “explain” how he injects GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into “little kids’ arms … right into the vein”, as one video purports to show. According to Lead Stories the clip had been taken and shared out of context.

“While this is a real video clip of [Mr Gates] speaking, he was making an analogy that he believes the safety of genetically modified crops should be tested before becoming part of the human diet just as vaccines are tested before being given to children.”

Meanwhile, Reuters found that neither Mr Gates, nor his wife Melinda, nor US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci nor the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, are set to appear before the “Human Rights Tribunal International” on charges of war crimes, as was claimed in a number of Facebook posts. “The posts purport to show a letter from the Human Rights Tribunal International, an organisation that does not exist either in the United States or elsewhere.”

If you’ve read most of the COVID-19 Fact and Fiction articles and you are wondering why yhey contain so many references to Bill Gates, his wife and his organization, this graph from the ABC showing Facebook mentions of “Bill Gates” and “vaccines” over recent months may give you some insight how both topics have been lightning rods for coronavirus conspiracies and misinformation.

Fact-checkers are having a very hard time just to keep up with these attacks on the Gates and with debunking them.

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

US President Donald Trump has been heavily criticised for playing golf over the recent Memorial Day long weekend as the country’s coronavirus death toll neared 100,000.

As usual, Mr Trump’s response was to point the finger at his predecessor and to accuse the media in a series of tweets of ignoring “all of the time [Barack] Obama spent on the golf course, often flying to Hawaii in a big, fully loaded 747, to play. What did that do to the so-called Carbon Footprint?”

Fact-checkers at CNN’s Facts First calculated that President Obama had played 98 rounds of golf up to the same point in his presidency as Mr Trump. By contrast, Mr Trump has spent time at a Trump golf course on 266 days of his term so far, according to CNN.

As to the biggest carbon footprint, Trump was again the clear winner. “Just Trump’s airplane trips to his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence in Florida, from which he has often taken a motorcade ride to a nearby golf course he owns, have required far more air travel than Obama’s once-a-year Hawaii vacations did through this point in the term.”

 

Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19

#28: Adding hot peppers (capsicum/chilli) to food
“Hot peppers in your food, though very tasty, cannot prevent or cure COVID-19.” ⁠— World Health Organisation

 

*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.